A little bit of remodeling

When we first bought this house, we knew that we were going to want to do a little bit of remodeling down the road.  Well, we’ve done a little bit here and there, and now we are taking a look at what we can do with the kitchen without spending too much money.  Kitchen remodeling is a high-budget project!  But fortunately I think I can do quite a bit of the work myself.  Instead of replacing the cabinets, I’m going to take off the doors and repaint them and replace the knobs.

I’d like to buy two undermount kitchen sinks to increase the efficiency of the kitchen.  My wife is always telling me that we should have extra sinks in the kitchen, to accommodate several people cooking.  Since we both like to cook, I think that is a great idea!  They don’t have to both be full sized, but an extra sink would be fantastic!

Garden shows

This is the time of year when my wife and I start seeing advertisements for flower and garden shows.  We have made it a tradition to go to them if it all possible.  We set aside the day and drive to the show and take our time and walk around the displays.  There are usually some really spectacular landscapes put up!  After we go through the landscape displays, we like to go through the vendor area.  The vendor area is full of trade show booths filled with all sorts of goodies.  Some are actually garden related, but some are just food, or crafts.  That’s OK, though.  The food vendors usually give away free samples!  And my wife enjoys looking at the crafts and getting ideas on expanding her own crafty interests!

Most of the booths are very well appointed with table skirts.  A few are not, however, and I have to say that those tables really look naked in comparison to those that do!  Some of the larger vendors that sell equipment go all out with the addition of banner stands and pipe and drape dividers.  I always find it interesting to see who is doing what with their display booths.

Bracing for the storm

I spent the day getting the snow blower and my tractor ready to go for tomorrow.  According to the weatherman we will be getting a record amount of snow overnight and over the weekend.  I’m rather excited about that; I have had this snow blower for two years and only used it once!  I pulled all of our cars off to the side of the driveway and pulled the tractor off of the trailer and into the garage.  With the Subaru having four brand new studded snow tires, and our truck with four wheel drive and  new snow tires I am feeling pretty secure about our ability to get out and about if we need to.  Now I just hope we don’t lose electricity!

Furnishing the new apartment

My niece and her fiance have been looking at a apartment.  They haven’t signed the lease yet, but they are pretty sure which apartment they are going to be taking, and now they need some furniture to put in it!  They’ve been asking other family members for hand-me-down home furnishings to help them out, and they are getting quite a bit of luck with that, but there are still a few items that they are going to be needing!

I’ve also suggested that they check out the local thrift stores and freecycle, but there are a few items that they want to get brand new.  I’ve suggested that they go to some local furniture stores and see what they like before buying something online.  I’d like to make sure that the brand that they get is going to be comfortable and well-made.  I’d hate for them to buy something sight unseen and then be upset because it is not the quality or comfort level that they want to have!

Wasp nests

Ealier today I noticed a couple of very large wasps nests in a stand of trees about forty feet away from our back yard deck!  These seem to be at least as large as a football!  My wife asked me if a wasp spray would reach them to kill the wasps.  I told her that I just wanted to shoot them down with a shotgun!  My wife thought that might not be a very smart idea, thinking that would rile them up and I’d get stung.  I assured her that the wasps had all vacated the nest for the winter.  She asked me where do they go?  I have to admit that I don’t know!  That would be an interesting thing to google and learn about!